During the nineteenth century the liberal ideals were spreading across large parts of mainland Europe, and the Swedish parliament of 1840-41 is sometimes considered to be the first one embossed by the ideology. Liberal ideas such as the prison reform, the poor relief reform and the school reform were all on the agenda. The state was composed of the king and four political orders tasked to represent each respective social group, the peasantry, the town folks, the clergy and the nobility. All of these with different rates of representation and policies. Sweden had also for the last decades experienced an increase in crime, poverty and drunkenness. The before mentioned reforms were all made in an attempt to better the situation and make way for a better future. In this study we will look at the parliamentary debates of two of the four political orders, the peasantry and the clergy for the parliament previously mentioned. Our goal is to find out what the two orders thought about the establishment of the first national grade school, that would mean considerable changes for both parties which is partly why they are specifically chosen for this study. The two sides frequently had their differences and would not often cooperate with one another. Although liberalismen was a big part of the reason the king proposed the changes, we will instead focus mostly on Michel Foucault’s theory of biopower (or biopouvoir in French) and social discipline. What general themes can be found in the debates? What was the purpose of the grade school? And lastly, are there any similarities and differences between the reviewed orders? What we can see at the end of the study is that the two orders have different focuses. While the peasantry mainly focused on implementing a school to steer the younglings in the “right” way, the clergy emphasised a spiritual teaching that would foster the individual.

Between Defence and Resistance: Destinies of Eighteenth-Century Protestant Communities in Eastern Bohemia and Haut-Languedoc Abstract Based on archive research and literature the thesis compares the religious life of illegal Protestant communities in the 18th century Eastern Bohemia and Haut-Languedoc. From macroanalytical perspective it assesses the strategies of protestant minorities used to resist the disciplining efforts of the absolutist state. The confessional homogeneity, economic background and social stratification of Protestants in Eastern Bohemia and Haut-Languedoc differed. Yet, the contrasting comparison opens up the way to analyse the divergent resistance strategies. Further, the thesis examines the existence and nature of attempts to simplify the religious doctrine and to modify the liturgy undertaken by the lay and ordained priests and the worshippers. The structure combines the thematic and chronological approach, while keeping a broad perspective that encompasses also the economic and cultural context. First tree chapters outline and conceptualize the problem of prohibited Protestantism in both regions during the 17th and most of the 18th centuries. While in Languedoc the Presbyterian-synodic structure was revived (albeit illegally), in Eastern Bohemia and in whole Bohemia and Moravia...